1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for baking thin discs of dough to form tortillas, taco shells, or the like, and particularly to a method and apparatus for sequentially baking dough discs at a high volume rate.
2. History of the Prior Art
Baked dough products in the form of flat discs have long been utilized for the manufacture of tortillas, taco shells, pita bread, and the like. The fast food restaurant industry has recently been attracted to the baking of tortillas and taco shells in response to a customer order, rather than relying upon conventional oven baking of a large number of such items which are prone to be cold or stale when delivered to the customer. Additionally, the space available in a modern fast food restaurant is extremely limited, yet the oven must be sufficiently large to bake a substantial number of flat dough discs at a time in order to meet the demands, particularly during rush periods.
There is a definitive need, therefore, for a small, compact baking apparatus for flat dough disc products that can produce such products sequentially at a relatively fast production rate, yet which will require much less floor space than any conventional oven capable of producing the same number of baked products in the same period of time.
A prior art attempt to resolve this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,025 to SCHULTZ. In the SCHULTZ apparatus, the flat dough discs are sequentially transferred from one to another of a vertical stack of rotating heated oven plates but, since each of the heated rotating oven plates can only accommodate a single dough disc at a time, much of the oven space is wasted.